Next-generation Vehicle Protection Jammer protects against IEDs

The Vehicle Protection Jammer is designed to block radio signals being transmitted to roadside bombs

Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, are one of the largest sources of coalition casualties in Iraq. Many of these IEDs take the form of roadside bombs, which are hidden on or alongside a road, then detonated when a moving vehicle passes near them. While there is more than one way of causing these bombs to detonate, they are often set off by a hidden human observer, using a radio-control device. Forces using the new Vehicle Protection Jammer from EADS subsidiary Cassidian, however, should find themselves at a greatly-reduced risk of such attacks.

The Jammer works by detecting and classifying radio signals that could be used to set off a bomb. It responds in less than a microsecond, by transmitting jamming signals tuned specifically to that band.

It is reportedly more energy efficient than previous jamming systems, as it only transmits when it detects a signal, as opposed to continuously.

According to Cassidian, the system is compact enough that it can even be installed on smaller vehicles.

An experienced freelance writer, videographer and television producer, Ben's interest in all forms of innovation is particularly fanatical when it comes to human-powered transportation, film-making gear, environmentally-friendly technologies and anything that's designed to go underwater. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta, where he spends a lot of time going over the handlebars of his mountain bike, hanging out in off-leash parks, and wishing the Pacific Ocean wasn't so far away. All articles by Ben CoxworthFollow @bencoxworth

Yeah. That works just dandy until they start running into comdet bombs that include a heartbeat monitor. If the device loses the heartbeat, boom. That's old tech.

flink 28th January, 2012 @ 01:27 pm PST

Cool enough, but it seems to me that the cost of this is vastly above the cost it will take insurgents to just use more roadside bombs that simply don't use radio signals... So far nothing has substantially decreased the risk presented by IEDs on the battlefield and in the long run this certainly won't either.

thehippopotamus 29th January, 2012 @ 06:21 am PST

This is cool, and a long time in coming. I would also think they could have invented a "sonic" device that transmits a signal out and around all vehicles, so 50 to 100 feet, that would set off any movement/vibration type of device.

Observer101 30th January, 2012 @ 01:29 pm PST

If the signal type and band are known, why not TRANSMIT at random intervals. Might just detonate while being placed. or even in transit. What could be more efficient than using the enemies resources against them?

Burnerjack 8th February, 2012 @ 11:49 am PST

I was asked to come up with a device like this by some military friends of mine. These devices are being triggered by garage door transmitters, which happens to be in my field. there are many channels, and coded signals involved, as well as built in delays which make a mobile detonator impossible. If it transmits a signal as it approaches a bomb, the delay will blow it up just about the time they roll over it. It is a signal power/ range/ speed VS distance problem.

You can't blanket all channels at once either, because they all interfere with each other.

You CAN put out enough interference, to make an outside transmitter unable to penetrate the noise you are generating though. This means the bomb you are about to run over, can not receive its destruct transmission. until you have passed on by, and out of range.

I do know a couple ways to defeat that technique, but I will not lay that info out here.